(Reuters) – Law enforcement authorities have detained a “person of interest” in connection with online threats against Jewish students at Cornell University that were posted over the weekend, according to New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
In a post on the social media site X on Tuesday afternoon, Hochul said the individual was in New York State Police custody for questioning.
The threats called for attacks on two buildings: a kosher dining hall and the Center for Jewish Living, where about 25 Jewish students reside. They were posted amid mounting tensions on many U.S. campuses between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups in response to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
The White House on Monday expressed concern over the threats, and Biden administration officials met with American Jewish leaders to discuss ways to stem the rising tide of antisemitism at U.S. universities.
Hochul said in her post on Tuesday that she had visited Jewish students at Cornell on Monday, and promised to do everything possible to find the perpetrator.
“Public safety is my top priority and I’m committed to combating hate and bias wherever it rears its ugly head,” she wrote.
The advocacy group Anti-Defamation League reported last week that antisemitic incidents in the United States had risen by about 400% in the two weeks since the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, compared with the same period the previous year.
About 190 of the 312 antisemitic incidents tallied by the group were linked to the war between Israel and Hamas. Of those 190, more than half consisted of rallies where the group found “explicit or strong implicit support for Hamas and/or violence against Jews in Israel.”
(Reporting by Julia Harte; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
